RE-IMAGINED: VIDEO GAMES AS CULTURE.

Picture used with permission from Jeff Williams (click pic to go to website)
Here's an interesting quote about the total number of movie theater revenue for 2004 in the US. This should help to throw this whole video game topic into perspective and help explain why this topic, with all its culture, the inherited idea of "Virtuality" (with the "DataGlove " and all that hoopla won't go away...

Total domestic box office in 2004 was $9.26 bil., the second-highest total in history, as total admissions experienced a small decline. But exhibitors led by the major chains continued to control their costs, increase revenues and improve their margins.

from: kagan.com Now contrast this numbers being throw around about the current gaming markets (US & Worldwide):

The NPD Group estimates that U.S. spending on entertainment software and hardware in 2005 reached $11.5 billion. These numbers exclude important categories, such as spending on online and mobile games. A study by Price Waterhouse Coopers shows that U.S. spending on entertainment software for all platforms in 2004 reached $8.2 billion. The study also estimates that worldwide spending on entertainment software in 2004 reached $25.4 billion.

from: Crandall & Sidak (2006). The PDF is here: Video Games: Serious Business for America's Economy

So now, I know that I'm not being exhaustingly scientific with my contrast and comparison here,but this isn't the only place where you're apt to hear that the Video Games/Computer Games industry is barreling down the Entertainment Superhighway going full tilt poised to bypass the Hollywood circuit (or already in the process of doing so). Picture www.menzelphoto.com (click pic to go to website)
And in the same way that food culture, fashion and language innovation flourished in their own time along the trade routes of the "Silk Road" or the West Indies , today we can observe a rush of creativity surrounding, embedded within, connected to and related with the (the online and off-line) worlds of Video Games worldwide.
TTYL
Misha

Greetings!
My name is Misha Antonich and this page is dedicated to informing people about an upcoming special program that I'm curating called RE-IMAGINED: VIDEO GAMES AS CULTURE.

The program length will be that of an average movie, so around 90-120 min., and will be shown to the audience of the BUDI 2007 Film Festival (BUDI = Busan Universiade for Digital Contents) on the premises of Kyungsung University in Busan, South Korea.

The idea is as simple as it is uncommon (I hope). RE-IMAGINED: VIDEO GAMES AS CULTURE is based on on the premise that we, as a global cultural community, are well into are 3rd decade of interacting with, manipulating and being influenced by video and computer games (VG/CG).
VG/CG'S have long been established as a strong mainstream cultural form that many people come in contact with and that heavily preoccupy specific groups within and beyond developed economies...for better or worst depending on who you talk to - and often enough that person's age.

The mission for this filmic program therefore is to track down some of the video, film and digital motion creations that overtly and directly deal with the cultural juggernaut of video/computer game play. Ranging from the critical to the playful, the philosophical to the non-nonsensical, the common theme is an attempt to formulate a position (or speaking for the whole program, a group of positions) to this current reality. Ad hoc value judgments are out of place. This is meant as a visual discovery forum which tries to ferret out unknown artistic brilliant that's been applied to a topic previously condemned as childish, or as an undertaking hoping to provoke thought through darker forecasts about our collective future with immersive interactions through games.

Does this spark any ideas? Know of any producers or existing works that fall into this area? Any and all tips are appreciated (constructive ones anyway).

email: budi2007[at]gmail[dot]com